With Jason Kidd officially out as coach of the Nets, Lionel Hollins has emerged as the clear front-runner to be his replacement.

Nets general manager Billy King said he, along with assistant general managers Bobby Marks and Frank Zanin, met with Hollins on Monday for dinner in New York, and planned to meet with Hollins again Tuesday.

“We’re going to meet again this morning and reevaluate where we are from there,” King said during his Tuesday morning press conference to discuss Kidd’s departure. “If we need to reach out to some more people, we’ll reach out to some more people. It’s an ongoing process.”

The Nets appear to be moving rapidly to replace Kidd, whose stunning departure from the franchise came quickly after The Post first reported of his failed power play to usurp King as the final voice in basketball operations. And with King firmly entrenched in his role now, it appears he has zeroed in on Hollins as his top choice to become the team’s next coach.

And whether or not Hollins is named coach, King indicated it is unlikely the Nets will hire someone without coaching experience this time.

“I think this time, we’re going to go with experience,” King said. “There’s some guys that have won quite a few games out there … quite a bit of experience.”

Hollins, 60, went 214-201 in three separate coaching stints with the Grizzlies franchise — twice as an interim coach, the third time from midway through the 2008-09 season until the end of the 2012-13 season, when the Grizzlies allowed his contract to expire. They eventually replaced him, with assistant Dave Joerger, after Hollins won 56 games and led the Grizzlies to the Western Conference finals that season.

King praised the work Hollins did with the Grizzlies. Memphis saw its winning percentage improve in each of his four-plus seasons and oversaw the development of point guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol.

“If you look at track record and what he did in Memphis, he was able to go in there and take a team, added some veterans and they continually got better,” King said. “He developed some young guys, Gasol, some big guys. If you look at Memphis, they got consistently better every year, [eventually going] all the way to the Western Conference finals.”

The Nets so far have sat down with just Hollins, although King said he did reach out to one person before Hollins to gauge his interest. He declined to say who it was because the talks didn’t go anywhere. A source said that person was not UConn coach Kevin Ollie.

King said he hadn’t contacted anyone else, but does have a list of several other candidates. At this point, though, it appears his search is focused on Hollins.

King reiterated what he previously has said about the market dictating how the Nets would approach free agency, which kicked off at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, and the three free agents the Nets would like to retain: Paul Pierce, Shaun Livingston and Alan Anderson.

“The market is going to determine itself,” he said. “[Over the next couple days], I’ll have an idea of where it’s going to be.”

King admitted, however, Shaun Livingston was going to be “difficult” to retain, and Livingston signed a three-year deal with the Warriors on Tuesday night.

“If Shaun gets a great deal, I’ll be happy for him,” King said earlier. “I think he’s earned it and he’s come a long way. If he gets a great deal I told him, I said, ‘I’ll be happy and hug you every time I see you, and I’ll appreciate the job you did this year.’ ”